tories; and although Australia occupies a similar position, and is of equal importance in separating two Oceans, it comes under the head of Islands, because it is entirely surrounded by the sea.

The Isthmus of Suez joins Africa to Asia; the Isthmus of Darien connects North and South America. It has long been contemplated to cut through these and thus make South America and Africa great islands, similar to Australia; but while it continues to be impossible for vessels to pass from one ocean to another at either of these points, the position of Australia is more advantageous for the purposes of commerce and circumnavigation, than that of either of the Promontories of Africa or America.

per

The Ocean Currents perform a most important part in the economy of nature, and a knowledge of them is of the utmost consequence to navigation. No part of the Ocean is in a state of rest: its whole surface is petually agitated; one of the wise provisions of the great Author of the Universe for preserving its purity. Not only do these currents prevent stagnation in the sea, but by dispensing heat and moisture they temper the climates over a vast portion of the globe.

Botanical Geography, or the distribution of plants, is better understood by comparing those of different countries.

In Terra Australis the aggregate number of plants known to Mr. Brown is 4100-of these 166 are common to this country and to Europe-the proportion of European plants is still less in the South of Africa. The vegetation of the Cape of Good Hope differs almost as, but not quite so, widely from that of the Northern parts of Africa, and the South of Europe, as does that of the corresponding latitude of Terra Australis from the Floral of India, and of Northern Asia. The proportion of these European species in South America is believed to be still smaller than in South Africa.

In some respects the distribution of animals resembles that of plants; the limits of both are, in so far, circumscribed by the intervention of seas and continuous chains of mountains, yet both are chiefly influenced by the in

equalities of temperature. Animal life is most intimately connected with, and dependent upon, the vegetable kingdom; heat and moisture stimulate the growth of plants, therefore the greater the amount of these atmospheric phenomena, so much more luxuriant is vegetation, and so much more abundant are animal formations. Hence we find, as a general rule, that vegetation is most exuberant, and animals most prolific, in the countries under the tropics, where heat is greatest, and moisture most abundant.

The difference between a coast and a continental climate is also exemplified in the decrease of vegetable and animal life in proportion as we recede from the coasts, and approach the interior of continents. In the arid plains of our interior, vegetation loses its luxuriance, and, consequently, its power to maintain the numerous tribes of animals which depend for subsistence on the leaves and plants peculiar to a humid soil.

The relation of geographical sites of continents to particular groups of animals, is not only remarkable in animals now existing, but has been traced in the races of animals now extinct-or fossil. Professor Owen has found not only that particular forms were assigned to particular provinces, but that the same forms were restricted to the same provinces, at a former geological period, as they are at the present day-and in this respect the law of geographical distribution of extinct Mammalia has been established by the evidence of Australian fossil bones, as satisfactorily in regard to Australia, as it seems now capable of being determined in regard to the larger continents of the globe.

The distribution and civilization of the different tribes and races are determined essentially by the configuration of continents, and by the direction of mountain chains, especially by those whose direction is nearly from East to West. These great physical configurations have determined the contents of many pages of history. Great seas, and a system of currents arising in their interchange of waters, appear to have been the chief agents in the distribution of the human race, as they are now likely to afford the chief means of a more extended commerce and a more perfect civilization.

Australia is characterized by a great deficiency of animals of the carnivorous order, and by inhabitants less artificial than any other class of savages. The great problem of her destiny when taken up by the dominant races, and connected, by commercial enterprise, with the distant shores of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, seems to require for its solution, an extensive knowledge of geography, since the articles of commerce consist of almost all the productions of the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.

CHAPTER I.

OF SEAS AND RIVERS.

QUESTIONS.

Where are the sources of the largest rivers?
At the highest parts of the land.

Is the Continental part of the land also intersected by various inland seas?

Yes.

What are the principal seas extending into the land?

The Mediterranean, between Europe and Africa, and its upper portions, viz :-the Black Sea, and Sea of Azof; the Red Sea, between Africa and Arabia; the Baltic, in the Northern part of Europe; and the Yellow Sea, extending into China. There are also other seas, but as they are rather separated by Islands from the rest of the Ocean than surrounded on all sides but one by land, they cannot be called Inland Seas.

Are any Seas wholly surrounded by land?

Yes: the Caspian Sea, the Dead Sea, the Sea of Aral and many lakes.

Are all such Seas and Lakes having no outlet, salt? Yes.

What is a River?

A large stream of water formed by many smaller water courses, united into on channel generally found at distances proportioned to the heights which enclose the basin, or surface receiving the rain.

Are there any parts of the earth where rain never falls?

Yes.

Describe them.

The most extensive is that district which stretches from Morocco Eastward through the desert of Africa; parts of Arabia, Persia, and the desert province of Meekran in central Asia.

Do Rivers arise there?

No, they are called Riverless districts.

What is the largest river basin known?

The Maranon or Amazon in South America.

What is its extent?

One million, five hundred and twelve thousand square miles.

Is that river large in proportion to the extent of its basin?

Yes.

Do all rivers bear a similar proportion to the extent of surface supplying them?

Not all.

How are the rivers of Europe and Asia classed?
As Oceanic and Continental.

To what seas do these rivers flow?

The rivers of Europe empty themselves chiefly into the Atlantic Ocean and its branches; those of Southern Asia flow exclusively into the Indian Ocean; those of Eastern Asia into the Pacific Ocean; and those of Northern Asia, into the Arctic Sea, to which also Northern Europe contributes its waters.

What are continental rivers?

In nearly the whole of Inner Asia, and part of Eastern Europe, a tract extending from near the Gulf of Finland on the West, to near the Yellow Sea on the East, the rivers do not run into the Sea, but into lakes, or are lost in the sands of their own channels.

Which is the greatest of these lakes, indeed the lar gest lake in the world?

The Caspian Sea.

What is the largest River flowing into it?

The Volga, which is the principal river of Europe.

Are there any similar Continental Rivers in America? Yes, there is the Rio Grande, on the Table Land of Mexico, and in the Continental Basin of the Andes in South America, the Rio Desaguadero, after a course of 300 miles is lost in Lakes and Swamps.

In what direction do most of the Oceanic Rivers flow? By far the greater number of important Rivers on the globe reach the Ocean in an Easterly direction, those to the South and North are next in importance, while those running a Westerly course are few in number and insignificant in extent.

CHAPTER II.

OF AUSTRALASIA.

What are the names of the largest Islands of the world after Australia?

Borneo, New Guinea (or Papua), and Sumatra; all to the Northward of Australia, where the sea has been said to resemble a broken Isthmus; and Madagascar near the East Coast of Africa.

What name has been given to the whole of that group of Islands to the South East of the Continent of Asia, of which Australia is the chief?

Australasia.

What name has been given to the remaining Islands of that Ocean?

Polynesia.

What is the name of the North Eastern Cape of Australia.

Cape York.

What is the name of the Strait near it?

Endeavour Strait.

What land forms the opposite side of Torres Strait? New Guinea.

What Port has been recently found near Cape York? Port Albany.

Describe it.